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First Weeks With My PSP

I downloaded this awesome Star Trek: The Next GenerationLCARS interface wallpaper (above) from a random website.

I’ve mostly been playing Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, Patapon, and Every Extend Extra. All three are frustrating in different ways.

Castlevania is frustrating because I’m really not used to controlling a character with a whip anymore. The last Castlevania game I played was Symphony of the Night, and Alucard used a sword. Also, when you double-jump with Richter, he jumps backwards. It’s not very intuitive. His powers are much more limited than Alucard. Perhaps I was just spoiled in Symphony of the Night and after that, no Castlevania game will ever match up — which is kind of funny, because I’m playing the re-release of Rondo of Blood, which is the direct prequel to Symphony of the Night. I feel compelled to keep going, though, because I can unlock Symphony of the Night if I finish this.

In Patapon, I’m having trouble getting a proper rhythm down, and that’s pretty key for attacking. It’s a cute game, but I don’t know how much I will get into it.

I kind of don’t even understand Every Extend Extra that well at this stage, but the sparkles and shooting are entertaining.

I have Pump It Up Exceed as well, but I haven’t tried it out yet.

I do want to get Lumines eventually. When the PSP first came out years ago, I really, really wanted this game. I downloaded the PC version of Lumines when my PC wasn’t messed up, and I quite enjoyed it.

I can’t think of any other games I would like for the PSP at the moment. Does anyone have recommendations for current and/or upcoming titles?

Castlevania is frustrating because I’m really not used to controlling a character with a whip anymore

So true; amazing how alien this sentence would have felt ten years ago.

Recommendations: well, Loco Roco really is as good as people make out, and very gentle. At the other end of the spectrum, I was really impressed with God of War – it’s a short, 7-hour-or-so romp, but it’s great fun, visually fantastic, and has one probably my favourite QTEs in gaming ever. And I don’t like QTEs much. I like both the Wipeouts; Pulse is probably the more assured these days. And, from a strategy perspective, Disgaea is an even more perfect fit on the handheld than in the living room.

On a side note, how is being down one toggle stick working out for you? I found the lack of one toggle stick to be extremely frustrating, as it threw me off pretty badly. I got so used to contolling with either a mouse/keyboard, two toggle sticks, or just a d-pad that it was odd and hard to get used to.

I haven’t had any problems with the lack of the right analogue stick/pad yet. I do find that the analogue pad is a little stiff, and my hand cramps up easily when I’m playing games that use this as the main means of control, like Every Extend Extra.

Final Fantasy: Crisis Core is rather good, although more of an Action-RPG than any other FF. If you are a FF7 fan, you should definitely enjoy it ;)

Patapon is good, although “hard”, not because of the rhythm (for me), but because I find you do have to grind a lot. And it took me ages to find out how to get rid of a patapon in order to replace him with an “improved” one (Equipment screen -> press Select).

I’ll definitely go back to Patapon someday though, and then maybe Patapon 2. I wish the PSP had some more great games though, curious about the upcoming Rock Band PSP game.